It is hard to process that this is the debut work of an
author. She has taken what is traditionally been a heavy involved subject, life
in Russia and created a dirge to the Cold War era, embracing the “interminable
stretch of a Russian winter” evoking the cold and dark weather and showing life
in Eastern Europe as Dostoyevsky did. Her mind pictures are dramatic, each
paragraph as if a postcard into the sole of her characters.
She takes the well-worn subject of Russia’s mastery of
modern-day chess, creates a character steeped in the game, Aleksandr and shows
us how someone of meager beginnings can build a protected empire through the country’s
one-upmanship with America for personal gain and advance through the corrupt
political system to mount a run at the presidency against Putin in a quixotic
and valiant attempt.
Irina, an American student who was brought up playing chess
with her father, and is now preparing to her life to Huntington’s disease, just
as her father had done takes on her own impossible dream, and meet the
chess-player that her father had sent letters to, and in a role of finding
purpose in her life leaves everything behind to chase her lost cause.
Their paths tangle and mesh in the most highly improbable
fashion and both help form a lasting impression on each other’s fate as well as
Russia itself. An improbable tale of endurance and love that will guide the
reader down a path of unrequited expectation.
